Question about grading not addressed by PSA specs.

frankhardy

I am sitting here looking through a 1974 Topps set and have some questions.

Those of you familiar with early to mid 70's Topps know about those "blisters" or "bubbles" that are on the surface of some cards. Let's say the card woud grade a strong PSA 8 otherwise, what would one blister bring it down to?

Also, when I look at the condition of a card, I turn the card in the light to where the card shines in order to see wrinkles more clearly. I have noticed a couple of cards that ARE NOT wrinkles, but when the light shines on them just right, there is a (i hate to even use this word) bend. I am not talking about a "warp" either. In short, it is a bend, but it is not bent enough to wrinkle the surface. My question - how much does that take off? Let's say, again, that we are talking PSA 8 otherwise, what would it grade?

balco757

A timely post for me, as I just got back a submission which included a handful of 70s mid stars. One of the cards, #197, Ryan Saves the Day - came back as a 5. I was shocked since I thought it had a shot at a 9, but 8 for sure.

Turns out when I 10X'd it under better light, I saw the little tiny bubble on the top left. PSA must be fairly tough on the bubbles, or I ran into a tough grader.......Was going to send it back, but in light of the other post on lack of success in that endeavor, I will just keep it as is.

Good luck and let us know how yours come back.

Steve

charliehustle14

My experience is that it depends on the size and quantity of blisters. I have a number of 70's cards from my last couple submissions that I decided to test this on. I have a couple cards that look like 9's, each with an ultra tiny blister, that came back 8's. Then I have several 7's with 1 small blister each, and they look like 8's or 9's otherwise. Then there are a couple cards with larger blisters that got 6's.

This is just my experience, but hope this helps.

-Todd-

Steve1124

This is an interesting topic. I am surprised that these blisters, which are so tiny, and in many cases not even visible to the naked eye would cause such a downgrade. One of the factors that PSA says they use is "overall eye appeal". If a card has "Nm-Mt 8" eye appeal, and an unnoticeable blister exists, it doesn't seem reasonable to knock it down to a '6' or lower, imo.